It looks like the merger between Comcast and NBC has seen it's first victim, Jeff Zucker. I feel for you Jeff, I recently lost the job I held when the company, I was with, decided to be greedy and not keep the people that were their front-line for customers and related it to "workforce reduction" based on the economy. However, I digress.
Zucker, Zucker, Zucker...I have admit he was a very smart guy with how he ran the Today Show in the 90s and made it the success it became and how it still continues to thrive. However, I cannot forgive him for the whole late-night mess. I am not a Conan-fan or Coco-head or whatever they call themselves. I am a fan of Leno. I won't hide that fact. I consider myself as a part of Gen-X, but what does that truly means besides a title...I have no idea. Conan is supposed to be the representation for this generation. I have to say I didn't jump onto that Coco-bandwagon. Nothing against the guy, he pulled in ratings and an audience, he is just not my cup of tea. I wish him luck on TBS. I will probably even tune in for the first night or two to see how the show fairs and if he changes is style.
I know this topic is pretty much over with right now and will probably only gain momentum once again when November rolls around or when ever Letterman decides he needs to boost his ego and trash Leno. Leno did get a unfair beating by the media in this debacle and from what happened after Carson left during the first late-night war. Leno's agent worked hard (and mean) to get Leno signed to take over the Tonight Show from NBC when and if (at the time) Johnny Carson would ( if ever) sign off from the airwaves. Leno had been the full time guest host on the Carson Tonight Show while Johnny would take a night or week off. Leno was warming himself up to be the host. While on the East Coast, Letterman just felt that he should be given the show based on what he did on his Late Night for over a decade. Not that his work should have been ignored, but he just approached this whole issue the wrong way.
Granted, Letterman worked hard on the show and was hard on himself (thank you Bill Carter for writing such an excellent book with all the juicy late-night details). Letterman didn't show interest to NBC until it was too late after they had signed on Leno after Carson announced he was leaving. Carson's announcement came without a heads up to the NBC brass during an appearance at the fall upfront presentation. Carson's surprising comments was partially a result from Leno's manager making a false story to the trade papers that NBC was considering to let go of Carson because of his age and if he could maintain title of "King of Late-Night". Leno had no idea that his manager was behind it until much later. She was later fired for her rants by Leno as a result of her actions while trying to do a prepare a live Tonight Show went awry when NBC News coverage of a political convention ran over. The plan was to have Leno go live with fresh jokes about the convention, but when NBC News wouldn't budge on the coverage or cut it at the time the live show was supposed to start, she sent the audience home. NBC execs forced their hand with Leno to either let go of his manager or they would consider giving Letterman the show.
What I feel Letterman didn't take into consideration is that he needed to show more interest in the job instead of just expecting it to be handed to him. As we all know that just doesn't happen. Letterman should shown more interest and been more supportive of himself and NBC to have made his position known earlier and not after the fact. Of course that allowed him to start marketing himself elsewhere in a more covert way without breaking his NBC contract. This lead to him jumping over to CBS, to create a new legacy for late-night programming for them. At the beginning Letterman did take the lead over Leno when he went to CBS proving his 11:35 chops. This lead ended after what most TV reviewers would agree was the Hugh Grant-tranny hooker issue on Leno in the mid-90s and Leno rode on the high horse of ratings in late night for NBC until he ended his first run on the Tonight Show.
I am not saying Leno is innocent, by any means. I really think he should have walked away from NBC last year or even when they gave/offered the Tonight Show back to him. He placed himself in the line of fire and although he was and continues to be loyal to NBC throughout (which I know will sound like I am contradicting myself from earlier) he should went to another network or went away for awhile. I think time away may make it a big return for Conan. Yes, I know that Conan was contracted by NBC to not jump immediately into another program after he left NBC in January. A course of action like that would and should have been the high road for both Leno and Conan and really make NBC flounder to find their footing in late-night.
If NBC had full faith in Conan, why did they keep Leno around? Did they truly have faith in Conan or were they worried that their 2005 decision to kick Leno out in 2009 was wise? I think it was the combination of both with having Leno on at 10:00 pm with pretty much the same format as his Tonight Show taking away (with low ratings) the lead in from the news to Conan. Conan isn't innocent as his fans claim or would like him to be seen. He didn't want to change his format from 12:35 Late Night to his Tonight Show. Which I can see people not wanting to make changes to what works similar with Leno. However, one hour does make a difference with who is watching him. It alienated the older viewers and some of the younger viewers that were 11:35 Leno fans went to Letterman or Jimmy Kimmel to at least hold on to some sense of what was before the short Conan-era. The changing of the guard gave Letterman's show some new life when he needed it after his blackmail/mistress affair that seemed to have been placing him in a more downward spiral.
As history has shown having Leno back behind the Tonight Show desk gave the lead back to NBC and away from Letterman, but his ratings have been and are still sometimes lower than Conan's ratings. So was it really all about low ratings or trying to cover for a mistake with an even larger one? I don't know.
Getting back to Zucker, he gave NBC a long and great run with many good times before and during the big change in the TV industry due to the internet and some mistakes he made for the network. Does anyone remember Encore, Encore? Everything from Super-Sizing episodes of Thursday's "Must-See" shows to gain ground on the slipping ratings that CBS was chipping at on Thursdays and giving Friends (which I never understood that phemon) their last year with their higher pay checks per actor was some of his highlights. Overall, I think the final nail in his coffin, in my opinion, was the late night battle.Instead of being just a single, final nail to that coffin it was a economy sized box that sealed his fate.
